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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28284102">To Grow</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/freebajablast/pseuds/freebajablast'>freebajablast</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Wilds (TV 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, College, F/F, host - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:56:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,903</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28284102</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/freebajablast/pseuds/freebajablast</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shelby is a hostess at a restaurant in a college town. One day a girl comes in who will change her life. Will it be for the better or for the worse?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my first fic fair warning. All constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At work time would always seem to pass very slowly or an hour would feel like a minute. There was no in between at Shelby’s job as a hostess. Sometimes the restaurant would be slammed and she would be greeting people and bussing tables continuously. The busy work would seem to make the time slip away, and make her forget she was there for hours. Today did not appear to be one of those days. When Shelby walked in during the late afternoon she could feel it would be a slow day, at least for a while. There were barely any customers in the restaurant, and it seemed it would stay that way. At least her boss let her read her books for class when it was not busy.</p>
<p>Shelby was starting to get far into her book when she could see that a customer was starting to come up to the door from outside. She put a sticky note in her book and closed it before the customer could catch her not fully paying attention to her job. After shuffling to close she looked up and saw two girls around her age, college students. It was a little weird to see two college students coming in. The town was very much a college town. The semester had just finished and almost everybody had gone home to see their families. Most people left at this point were locals, except for Shelby. She had left her life in her little hometown, and she was not trying to go back anytime soon. She wasn’t ready, not yet. </p>
<p>After going through her thoughts in the second it tools the girls to walk closer to the hostess stand, Shelby greeted them. She gave them a big Texas welcome. Shelby really was the poster girl for a steakhouse, a pretty blonde girl with a southern accent. She grabbed their menus and silverware, and then started walking them to their table. As she was walking she did her usual of asking how they were doing today. Shelby then asked them if they went to the college nearby. She liked to fill silence, and it was a long walk to the table in the very back. The girl with dark,  wavy hair said that she had just transferred, and wanted a nice dinner to celebrate finally moving. Shelby questioningly asked in a light hearted manner “This close to Christmas, huh?”. Sure Shelby had a crap home life, but that didn’t mean everyone else did too. The girls told her she wanted to make sure she got settled in before classes began, and that she didn’t really celebrate Christmas. With that Shelby left the two girls to their table for their server to take over. </p>
<p>Now that Shelby had sat the two girls it seemed like everyone wanted to eat at the restaurant. Shelby walked back up to the hostess stand while letting out a small sigh. She really wanted to go home early, but now that idea was pretty much shut down. When she got closer to the host stand she put a big smile on her face, and greeted the customers with a kind welcome. Being a hostess was all about keeping up appearances, and she was very experienced in that. </p>
<p>Once Shelby was finally done seating people, the few customers that were there earlier were starting to leave. It was time to go bus the tables. Today it didn’t seem like it would be too bad. The servers were doing a good job picking up the plates as the customers were finished with them. Now she’d only have to pick up a few smaller plates, and their cups. </p>
<p>As Shelby was cleaning up the table she heard one of the girls she sat earlier erupt with laughter. The girl was laughing so freely and carelessly. She couldn’t remember the last time she did that. Sure she’d laugh a lot, but not that hard in so long. She never seemed to give enough of herself to other people to have that. Part of her would always hold back in fear of being judged. What if she said the wrong thing? What if what she said made things awkward? What if people think what she said was really weird? She would rather go the safe route then potentially saying the wrong thing and having people perceive her in a negative way. </p>
<p>After Shelby was done being momentarily distracted by her thoughts, she went back to cleaning. She quickly got in the zone of picking stuff up, bringing the stuff to the back, going back to the front, and then repeating. Her cycle was finally distracted when she noticed the two girls she had seen earlier had left. She really wanted to say goodbye to them, because she really enjoyed talking to them. Oh well, they must have slipped out while she was putting away dirty dishes in the back.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. grocery store mishaps</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Toni runs into a certain hostess at the grocery store</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Forewarning I was drunk writing this chapter. This first half I was tipsy at best, and the second half I started to get a headache as I was sobering up a bit. That being said this is probably an incoherent piece of shit, but I'm too lazy to proof read it now or wait until tomorrow so good luck. If this chapter is truly awful due to previously mentioned circumstances, let me know and maybe I'll rewrite this chapter later and fix it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Toni may not have known a lot of things but one thing she did know is that she needed to go shopping. Eating off pasta and cereal is easy and very convenient, but after a while it gets old and it does not give you the nutrition that you need. Toni needed to eat a vegetable and maybe a few fruits if she is feeling real good about herself. She decided it was finally time to go shopping for some real food ,and stop living off the three basic ingredients she had in her apartment. </p><p> </p><p>To be fair it was not her fault. Toni had just brought a few food ingredients so that she would not waste all of her space packing with food. Now that she had finished unpacking though, she realized that she needed more than her regular snack which was Takis, and easy to make meals which were pasta and cereal. It was a good thing that the nearest grocery store was only a ten minute walk max. The only excuse she would have at this point was pure laziness. Her best friend and roommate Martha wouldn’t mind if she took some of her food, but she didn’t want to. Martha was too nice to say no, and she would feel like she was stealing from her because of that. Looks like it was time to go to Kroger.</p><p> </p><p>It was so fucking cold. Toni put on a coat, but it was like it did absolutely nothing. Fuck this. Yeah eating something different than the last same five meals was nice, but so was not freezing her ass off. It was only maybe a ten minute walk, but that walk felt like fucking forever. At least she was there now in the warmth of the store.</p><p> </p><p>While walking towards a shopping cart, Toni took a moment to bask in the heat. There were fewer things better than being able to take a moment to relax in the heat after freezing your ass off. After taking a moment longer than she should have, Toni finally grabbed a cart and walked into the store to grab some food. </p><p> </p><p>Toni immediately made her way to the fruit and vegetable section. Her body was begging for something healthy, and what she was eating was just not cutting it. A single carrot would be better than what she was eating at the moment. Toni was trying to think of the last time that she ate a vegetable , maybe a week or two ago, when she slammed her into someone else’s cart. </p><p> </p><p>Well, fuck that’s not good. What idiot slams into another cart while grocery shopping. Her she guesses. At least she didn’t run over a small child. Once she finally collects her thoughts she looks at the person she slammed her cart into about ready to cuss them out even though it was probably her fault. When Toni looks up she immediately loses that thought. In front of her was a smoking hot blonde girl. This girl seemed a little familiar, like she had seen her somewhere. It took Toni a moment, not a long one because who could forget, but she suddenly remembered. The hot blonde girl was the same hot blonde girl that was a hostess at the restaurant her and Martha ate at. Damn she looked a lot hotter outside of her uniform. Not that there’s anything wrong with a girl in a dress shirt, but a girl wearing her own style lets you get a feel for her. </p><p> </p><p>In the middle of Toni running through her thoughts, she realizes the other girl is saying something. She only hears the second half of what the girl is saying, but it sounds like an apology for the shopping cart crash. The girl seems weirdly a little too nice apologizing for something that was definitely not her fault. Toni tells her it’s fine, and decides to distract her from her long apology by asking if she was the hostess at the restaurant she ate at.</p><p> </p><p>It seemed to work. The girl stopped apologizing profusely and began asking how Toni knew and then began talking about her job. Toni did not know it was possible for someone to talk so much from such a small question. She tried to get out of the conversation, but it was worthless. By the time the girl was done Toni knew the ins and outs of this girls job. She also knew about all of her coworkers, and how Natalie was apparently the most annoying person in this girl's life, but she got strength from God to be the bigger person and ignore her annoyingness. At this point Toni might as well go get a job at the restaurant since she knows so damn much about it now. Toni just came here to get some fucking broccoli and here she was. When the girl was finally done, she introduced herself as Shelby. For a second Toni thought about introducing herself as someone else so Shelby could never find her to interact with her again. Before she could think of another name to give Shelby, Toni accidentally tells her her real name. Fuck. No going back. <br/>Shelby tells her how nice it is to meet her. All Toni can think about is going back thirty minutes ago to take the five seconds it would take to pay attention and not bump into her cart.</p><p> </p><p>Now that Toni is no longer stuck in a conversation she no longer wants to be in she goes back to shopping. She finally picks up some fruits and vegetables so her body will stop crying for help. Toni grabs some other food items that are cheap, but will be nice to have to make some meals. Afterwards she finally makes her way to check out, and makes the cold walk back to her apartment.</p><p> </p><p>When Martha sees Toni is back she looks at the relatively short amount of items she has with her compared to how long her trip to the grocery store is. Martha immediately asks her what took her so long, and jokingly asks if she got lost inside. Toni tells her about how she accidentally ran her shopping cart into some other girls shopping cart, and had to listen to a fucking novel length apology and all about her job. Martha laughed at her wondering how Toni managed to get in the most annoying situations, almost like she attracted them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>For the people who celebrate Christmas how was it? Anything exciting? I was unable to visit my family today, but my best friend came down and we drank. Overall I would say mine was pretty good!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm not really sure of the direction of this fic. I have a few ideas, but it's definitely going to be we'll see what happens!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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